Dublin
Ireland officially banned the English names of more than 2,000 towns this week. Only the towns’ Gaelic names can be used in government documents and on maps. Tipperary is now called Tiobraid-Arran, Dunquinn is Dun Chaoin, and Ventry is Ceann Tra. The change applies mostly to the western regions of the country, known as the Gaeltacht, where Gaelic is still spoken, at least by a few. Ireland’s population of nearly 4 million includes only about 55,000 native Gaelic speakers, but children must study the ancient language in school.
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